WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en

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[...]

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the the there's something about a
railroad and something about rail roading

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that's different from any other calling
beneath the sun something inside a man

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and the way he thinks about his job and
the pride he feels in his own performance

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it rides the motor car across a stretch
of open track with a band of men on their

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way to work it stands beside them in the
silent desert where the only sound is

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the sound of their tools and their voices
it walks with the man who works alone

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marches with thousands who work together
for these are railroad people a breed of

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their own the men and women who run the
railroad working with paper with forges

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lathes and presses throwing the
wheels pending the signals throwing

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the switches handing out supplies
helping with the baggage

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serving the food selling the tickets building

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a fence a bridge a road bed using a shovel

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a crane a transit a typewriter

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making up the trains running
the trains maintaining

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the trains this is my railroad a hundred

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thousand men and women working
together to serve one purpose to

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keep a railroad running

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in the beginning there was nothing no
rail no road bed no rolling stock nothing

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but untouched wilderness but in the
wilderness was also a promise the

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promise of a western empire which could
make one nation as wide as a continent if

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it could be bound together with bands of
steel where few men had dared to walk a

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path was cleared out of
the rock out of the earth

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and through the virgin forest ties were hued

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rail was laid, bolted and spiked down

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when the last spike was driven our first

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trains moved across the continent up and
over seven thousand feet of mountain

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barrier locked in winter's clutches and
into the heart of the western empire a

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nation now was joined together a nation
scarcely born yet reaching for its

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destiny as the west and southwest
grew so did the railroad

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until today those rails which once
bravely span the mountain have become an

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interlocking network binding together
the far west the southwest and the south

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linking them in turn with the mid-continent
and through many connecting lines

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hauling traffic across the nation
hauling the products of the forest

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lumber from the ciscallus the cascades
the sierra from new mexico, texas and

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louisiana hauling the products dug from
the earth the metals, the chemicals, the

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oil hauling the products of the soil
fruits and vegetables from the garden spot

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of the nation transported to distant
cities as if distance were non-existent

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hauling the products of the factory
fashioned into the shape of things our

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people need hauling the people
of a free nation a people free

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to move and travel at their will
without answering to any man this

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is my railroad a service performed by a
hundred thousand men and women who share

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a common pride knowing how to run a railroad

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well, railroading's quite

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a job and it seems to be getting bigger
all the time all along our lines we keep

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getting more people don't ask me where
they come from but they keep right on

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coming and behind those people we keep
getting more business and industry

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each day in the last 25 years a new
industry large enough to need a rail

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connection has sprung up along our lines
since the end of world war two that rate

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has doubled two new industries a day
turning out goods that have to be delivered

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to somebody somewhere all over
the country so it's no wonder we

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can't ever say a railroad's really built
we're always adding to it and always

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rebuilding it for instance,
as traffic increases we keep laying bigger and

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heavier rail to carry the heavier loads
replacing rail isn't a complicated job

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till you remember you can't hold up
traffic our boys work it out though the

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fellows down the line pass the
word along when a train's coming

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we make a temporary joint move our equipment

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out of the way and the train goes
right on through it's worked and the

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train has to slow down a little
but traffic keeps on moving the

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speed at which we can run our trains
depends only partly on the power of the

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locomotive it depends even more on the
weight of the rail and the curves and

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gradients of the track we always
try for a straight and level line

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but the contours aren't always made to
order we have to fit our railroad to the

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contours so when we have to build a curve
we try to make it as gentle as we can

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on one stretch of track the Tehachapi
Loop it wasn't quite so easy

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we had to swing our curve all the way
around so one end of the train actually

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passes over the other we have to carry
passengers and freight even when there's a

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mountain where we want a canyon or a
canyon where we want a mountain so we

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move the earth around that's
all cut it away from one place

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and fill it in in another

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cut and fill that's the basic pattern

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where a cut would be too deep we drive a tunnel

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through where a fill would be too
great we build a trestle or viaduct to

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carry our trains on stilts in order to
cut across the Great Salt Lake we had to

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build a trestle 12 miles long we put
a road bed right across the water

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and we engineer our bridges
sometimes we build a small

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one sometimes we build a high one
like the Pecos River Bridge in Texas

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there are more than 10,000 bridges,
viaducts, and trestles on our lines

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it's a lot of work to build a
railroad and the work is never

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done but you build, you have to maintain
maintaining a railroad takes a lot of

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material our supply trains are always on
the move carrying that material to every

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point in the system it takes a lot of
equipment and some of it very technical

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like the rail detector car which can see
right inside the steel rails looking for

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flaws no human eye could ever see but
mostly maintaining a railroad takes a lot

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of men and those men have to know their
jobs when the weather's fine and the sun

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is out it isn't too difficult but
when the weather changes the job

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gets a little more complicated

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when the wind grips up a desert sandstorm
we've got a real fight on our hands

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that tearing sand blast can wear the hard
steel rail faster than the trains that

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run on it it can bury the rails block
the switches and even stop the trains so

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our men must fight it this is no easy way
to make a living but railroad men can

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take it working as steadily and as quickly
as possible and as quickly as the wind

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itself for as long as the wind keeps blowing

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like I say, it's

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quite a lot of work to run a railroad

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who are these people

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who run the railroad? who keep the railroad
running? we're a plain and friendly

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people living in the cities, towns and
rural districts of eight states living

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among our friends and neighbors whose
patronage of the railroad gives us the work

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by which we earn our living we in turn
contribute to the communities in which we

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live we pay our taxes take an
active part in community life

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and buy from merchants up and down
the streets of a thousand towns

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we're members of clubs women's clubs
and service clubs and members of sports

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clubs too both as players and as
spectators we all have fun, don't we bub?

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yes, we're a plain and friendly people
we who run the railroad we who run the

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railroad in sun and storm in summer and
in winter in order to carry the people

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and the products of a nation so that one
man may exchange his goods with other

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men and they in turn with him in the
working pattern of a free economy

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we haul a lot of stuff all right

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but getting it to the right place at
the right time isn't just a matter of

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hooking a lot of cars together and running
them over the line every train has to

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be made up according to a carefully worked
out plan so naturally we think our end

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of the job in the railroad yards is an
important part of railroading because

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that's where the trains are put together
all along the line cars come into these

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yards to be routed and rerouted to their
destinations in the yards we sort them

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and shuffle the individual cars into new
trains some will go north, other south,

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or east, or west in the most
modern yards it works like this

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the engineer of the switch engine pushes
the cars up the slope of a man-made

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little hill we call the hump when
the yardman pulls the coupling

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pin the car rolls by itself down an
easy grade to see that it doesn't

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roll too fast the operator in the first
tower sets a control and down on the

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track the wheels of the car get an electronic
squeeze to slow it down it's still

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a little too fast so another control is
set and a second set of squeezers brings

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it down to proper speed now the operator
in the next tower takes over and sends

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it to the right track to join up with
other cars slated for the same destination

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it has to be handled just right maybe
there's furniture in that car or maybe a

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load of dishes if it rolls down the
hump too fast it'll hit like a head-on

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collision it's got to come in real easy
right to the cupboard like a cushion

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that's what you might call a push-button
railroad but it still takes a good man

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to run it and a good team on the
ground to back him up where one man's

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job ends another man's takes over as
the newly made-up trains pull along the

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throat track to the departure yard a yard
clerk calls in the number of each car

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to the yard office for

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every train we make up in the yard

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we make up a train on paper too by keeping
a record of their movements we know

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where any shipment is anywhere
along our lines at any time on

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automatic machines we cut a card for
every car in every train the cards are

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routed through other machines that
automatically cut teletype tapes and dispatch

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a copy of each card to as many as 60
different offices which may be interested in

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the train later at junction points across
the continent the progress of each car

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will again be teletyped ahead with the aid
of automatic equipment and electronics

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railroading today has become a science
yet all that these mechanical marvels can

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really accomplish is to help good men do
their jobs better the engineer in the

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cab can pick up his phone and thanks to
shortwave radio talk with the conductor

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in the caboose a mile away as easily as
if they were sitting side by side the

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conductor works from wheel reports which,
once made up by hand, are now made up

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by machine but no machine yet devised
has been able to cut off a car at its

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destination or switch it to
the proper track no machine

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yet devised has ever taken the place of
the brakeman's eyes as he keeps his watch

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over the rolling wheels of the rolling
crate and no machine ever devised has

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taken the place of the engineer's skill
as he pilots his train along the track

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the machines help,
but it still takes men to do the jobs the

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engineer, highballing along at top-allowable
speed, knows there are trains ahead

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of him, behind him, and coming in the
opposite direction yet he is completely

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confident his confidence is in the men
who keep him posted the dispatchers

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on a hundred miles of single track
there may be as many as twenty trains

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traveling in two directions and at
different speeds as trains pass a station

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the operator passes the word to the
dispatcher he checks one report against the

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other and transmits his orders on ahead
to be picked up along the line the

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engineer or fireman in the engine cab picks
up the orders from the top arm of the

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train order post and a mile behind,
a trainman latches on to a duplicate from the

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lower arm the orders may read for the
train to go right on through or to pull

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into a siding so another train can
pass its teamwork all the way, good

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coordination and timing and the
automatic block signal system provides

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a safe double check on the
busier sections of single

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track line dispatchers can speed up
the traffic flow with the aid of an

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electronic system called Centralized
Traffic Control or CTC CTC is the dream

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of almost every boy and man a railroad
at your fingertips a hundred miles of

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track before your eyes out on the line
two freight trains push on toward each

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other on the same track to
the dispatcher miles away

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they are lights on his CTC board lights
moving toward a siding then a flick of a

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remote control switch one

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freight takes the siding the other
train keeps right on rolling

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with the positive control of
CTC the dispatcher's judgment

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cuts down delays at siding and often
he can time his meets so perfectly

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that neither train must stop